Lost Time
by Fenix Cole
Summary: Three years can change a lot for the Straw hat crew, death, sadness, and cruelty has been delt to them during this time. But now, their captian has returned from seemingly death, to re-unite the crew against a new threat, and become true pirate king. LuNa
1. The Bar

Lost Time

I Do not own one piece. If I did, then I would use my free time for something else, now wouldn't I?

Flames are welcome, I really don't care about reviews, this is my first story, if I like how it turned out I will write more.

-Coreman

Monkey D Luffy. Many people in the grand line know this name quite well by now, as it has been nearly 3 years since Luffy first left his hometown in a Dinghy, floating on the blue sea, into the distance from the eyes of the small group of villagers gathered around the shipyard, if it can even be called that. At age 17 Luffy left that town, and found a group of the most unimaginable fighters ever. Zoro, the swordsman, Nami, the navigator, Usopp, the village liar and sharpshooter, Sanji, cook on a floating restaurant run by former pirate Zeff the Red Leg, Chopper, reindeer doctor with the human human devil fruit powers, Franky, the Cyborg Shipwright, Robin, archaeologist and currently only known person capable of interpreting the Poneglyphs correctly, and Brook, undead and somewhat perverted swordsman, who ate a devil fruit allowing him to come back to life after death.

It has been three years since this great band of pirates blasted through the grand line, and it has been one year since the crew found where one piece was to be, but instead found empty boxes, dust and decaying corpses where one piece should have been.

And last but not least this one single year, 365 days, 55 weeks, and many, many hours has been how long it has been since the great pirate captain known as Monkey D Luffy and his crew split up, leading their own separate lives. Luffy vanished from sight, the navy still leaving his now 1 billion beri bounty posted in the walls of decrepit, dusty, and unpopular taverns scattered about the world, Zoro fought Mihawk, and won, but gained a larger scar across his arm, chest and neck, still alive, and running from the navy as a bounty hunter.

Nami returned to her hometown, where she lived peacefully, yet missing something in her life, perhaps the adventure shared by the Straw hat crew. Usopp went back to his town as well, and married Kaya, after his adventures, and told of his adventures yet this time, they were not lies.

Sanji found the all blue, and acquired a lot of money after finding it, which he used to open a floating restaurant which he dedicated to Chef Zeff who was killed some years earlier. Chopper followed Usopp, not rejected by the children, and majority of the population in the village, living his life happily as a kind of personal medicine instructor for Kaya.

Robin finally found a place to call home, an undiscovered village in the New World, living in peace with the natives, spending much time reading, writing, and studying their culture.

And Brook? Brook became a bounty hunter with Zoro, and assisted him in his fighting and capturing of enemies. Some would say that he was slightly more serious this time.

But our story takes place one year, down to the date even that the Straw Hat crew was abandoned.

Rain poured down over a dank and somewhat deserted tavern in the grand line, as a man in a night blue overcoat walks in, hood covering his face, looking about for the barkeep, then smiling at a wanted poster on the wall, "so he's still wanted hmm?" The man whispered to himself. "Barkeep, please, a shot of rum and a plate of whatever food is good please." The apparent barkeep looked up from his newspaper and peered at the customer, adjusting his spectacles upon his nose, bristling with Grey hair forming a somewhat bushy beard underneath his nose. "Coming right up sir." the man said, a heavy accent clouding his speech. He left the counter, and returned in a moment with a steaming plate of rice with meat and beans mixed in, and a bottle of rum.

The man in the blue coat paid and sat down in a table in the corner. "This is an interesting place you have here. And that wanted poster really attracted my attention. I thought the navy said he was dead?" he said, making idle chitchat. "the navy SAID." the man smiling from behind his magazine. "you know, he actually came here and visited once with his crew. They weren't as bad as normal pirates you know, the kid was fairly light headed, and kind. He saved this island from an unnatural force: the fish men. You know, the race which a huge blow was dealt on just last year? Almost all of their major leaders killed. And one of that kid's crew members lives here, in this village!"

The last sentence sparked a flash of interest in the strangers eyes as he ate the rice and meat that was placed in front of him. "really? And who would that be?" "the one here in the village?" "yes." "that would be Nami, the navigator of the crew." the man said proudly standing up from his chair. "Yessir, I figure she would be about 21 tomorrow." "do you know where she lives?" the stranger inquired, interest sparkling in his now visible black eyes. "ye, I know where she lives, she lives with her sister, Nojiko, why?" the man asked, looking suspiciously at the blue hooded person.

"oh, I once knew someone by that name, and I wanted to visit them to see if it is who I thought it was. The food was excellent, I'm surprised that there aren't more people here." he said and placed a thousand beri bill on the counter. "keep the change." he said as he left, the barkeep staring after in disbelief at the massive amount of money he had received for such a small meal.


	2. The Navigator

**LOST TIME**

-due to the fact that my last chapter was seemingly short, I've decided to make it double spaced, or at least to some extent like other fanfics, to make my chapters longer.

-Coreman

UPDATE!  
-I messed up Luffy's age, and as such, I've gotta fix it. (Damn I'm a perfectionist..)

Rain flurried down, bouncing off of the roof of the house, as a girl looked out the window into the abyss that was outside. "Honestly Nojiko, is this what you did your whole life?" "unfortunately so, it gets boring after a while I know, but I usually just play cards with myself, or sleep on days like this. And honestly, why do you still read those navigation books? You're done on the sea, and you know it! You said so yourself." Nami smiled. "but I have the feeling thats all going to change."

The hooded man continued on his way towards his destination, and as he looked up, the rain started to lessen. "looks like my luck is finally turning." he smiled. "either that or its just fate." he said as his feet sent water flying from puddles on the ground.

He removed the hood to revel a mature 20 year old face, with dark black hair, parted in the center, and longer than one would expect of this person. No straw hat adorned his head, but as he unbuttoned his jacket, the traditional red vest could be seen, and a sword was attached to the side of his dark blue jeans.

He stopped walking. "well, something I turned out to be." He said as he grimaced, continuing on his walk, reminiscing on old times. "Haha, what a crew we had. But now that I'm not as much of an idiot as I was, maybe I'll have the guts to tell them. And why did I start here?" he spoke to himself.

The doorbell rang as Nami looked up. "Now in this rain who could that be?" she thought as she looked out the window to see a blue jacket. Opening the door slightly, she peeked out and spoke, saying: "who is it?" in a somewhat quiet voice. "do you remember what happened about a year ago? We split up, and now I'm trying to fix that mistake. Do you know who I am now?" Nami blinked in a mixture of confusion and curiosity. "Luffy was killed by the marines, so you can't be him. Are you Zolo?" The cloaked man removed his hood. "can't always trust the navy, huh?" "Luffy? You're alive? When-how-where...Where did you come from? Nami said, her speech slurred by the spectacle of the long lost and apparently dead captain of the thousand sunny, and maybe something else...no, she shook off whatever other feeling she felt.

"Why are you here Luffy?" "well, I found a number of things out during that year. One: one piece is not on that island, it is on another island in the New World. Two: I learned the locations of all of the rest of the crew, and I was closest here, so I came here first. Third: the navy knows that I'm still alive, and Four: I read a number of books about various things like music, medical studies, etc, in case a former crew member decides not to re-join. So are you coming?" Luffy inquired, still the same look on his face, a mixed expression of happiness and seriousness. "no." Nami replied.

Luffy looked somewhat exasperated, but other than that his expression remained the same. "I've gotten used to this lifestyle, and you never even warned us that you might come back some day, you just turned tail and left in a dinghy. And now you want me to come back?! All it is is a waste of my personal time, and do you remember what I had to go through on that ship? Crazy perverted cooks, leopards, skeletons, insane people, constant fighting, getting captured? And you want me to give up my lifestyle that I've just gotten used to to join your band of misfits? We may have been strong, but you're a year too late Luffy." she said and closed the door. Luffy smiled.

Well, I saw that coming from a mile away, but Nami, I know you're still listening, so I will tell you: I want to find one piece not for becoming pirate king anymore, but mostly just as remembrance of the good times. It doesn't matter if we find it or not, but I used that year, for change. We may fight many battles. We may fight none. But what we can say after some time is; hey, I went there, I was on that poster on that wall, I found that treasure. And we can laugh. Can you laugh now at the ending of our crew? Personally, I can't. But if that is the way that you want it, I'll just be on my way." he smiled as he turned at a sudden "wait!"was shouted from the door.

"I'll come with you, but do you still have the thousand sunny? And why did the navy say you were dead? Hang on, I've gotta get my stuff." Nami left the doorway, and slowly moved into the closet to get her things. "Nojiko, I'm leaving. I'm not sure when I'll be back either. Maybe in a couple of years, months or even days."

"WHAT?! WHY SO SUDDENLY?! Are you going off to 'sea' again in your mind?" "ha ha, I'm not insane Nojiko, even though I'm sure you'd like the money you'd get if I was. Say goodbye to Genzo for me." and with that, the Straw hat crew was somewhat re-forming. Yet this time, Nami left the village of which she had left before as the way she had done origionally.

Without a celebration, no remembrance, nothing she remembered from the day she returned. And as she once again set foot on the Thousand Sunny, she noticed that through the rain, it still had a distinct, yet hardly noticeable glow about it. The tangerine trees were still in bloom, yet slightly overgrown.

The head of the thousand sunny was still there, yet it was dusty, as if nobody had sat there for a long time, which seemed quite puzzling, along with the fact that Luffy was alive, and the marines were not after him if they knew this. "Well navigator? Who are we getting back first?" Luffy said with a smile somewhat like his old one. "Well, Zoro joined first, so why not him? And why did you recruit me first?"

"Zoro is on the grand line with brook, and we're not going there until we've got a sizable group. And I chose you first, because you were closest to my location when I first decided to re-start the straw hats. Also, navigation was one of the things I couldn't master. So due to the fact that Zoro is on the grand line, and as are brook, and robin, I suggest we go to find Usopp or Chopper first. They're nearby, and on the same island. And please, allow me to take care of getting them to join, as Usopp will be particularly hard. We'll have to get him away from his family, and knowing him, that will be hard." Nami nodded, and then suddenly made sense of what Luffy had said.

"Waaaaait...Family? Explain please." "oh, thats easy." Luffy said, nodding maturely. "He married Kaya, and had a kid." Nami sweatdropped. "HOW DO YOU SAY THAT SO CALMLY?" she said, almost infuriated, as she swung at Luffy, who promptly ducked, and smiled. "well, looks like things are almost back to normal."

As the townspeople emerged from their houses in the morning, they saw Nojiko near the sea, looking out as far off in the distance, some said that they saw tears rolling down her face. "Good luck sister. If you come back...which I know you wont, just know I'll miss you."

**Please review! This chapter took me almost a day of typing! More coming soon, reviews will make them come faster!**

**-Coreman**


	3. The Liar and the Doctor

**LOST TIME**

-it seems many of my descriptions of the character's pasts were not as accurate as I'd hoped. Please review and give constructive criticism if you find any, much appreciated.

"Usopp!, Usopp!" A teenager ran towards a mansion in the middle of a familiar village, screaming wildly. "PIRATES! PIRATES!" the boy screamed at the top of his lungs. When he finally reached the mansion, out of breath, the gate was opened by a person wearing what looked like curly ram horns on his head opened the gate, and let the kid into the mansion where he was met by a tall man in a tuxedo with a very long nose, who gazed over to him. "What is it Piman?" "Usopp, a group of pirates is nearing the shore, what should we do?"

Luffy had changed into something Nami thought she would have never seen him in. "you own a TUX?!" she screamed as the captain emerged from his quarters, stepping into the sunlight. "things change in one year." he said, in a calm voice for what seemed to Nami for once in his life. "you know, even though you're obviously not as weird as you used to be, for some odd reason, I find that you're even weirder serious." they both laughed, and Luffy approached the border of the town. "I hope these people still remember us." he said, joking around. "Its been three years and all..." Suddenly a shot was heard from one of the bushes near the top of the hill.

A bullet whizzed by Luffy's face, and Nami ducked, another passing by her head. "Dammit, I forgot, this village became one of the most well fortified against pirates, in the world. Probably in the top five." He grimaced. "I knew I should have taken that flag down." he said as a bullet bounced off of his arm. Suddenly Luffy was gone, and Nami looked up, noticing four rifles inside of a bush.

"Where the fuck did that bastard go?!" a white haired boy wearing a cap which pushed his hair down so it covered his face mumbled to his three companions. "Damn, you guys are still terrible shots. I'll take the pirate bitch down." said a man wearing a bandanna and the occupant of a very long nose said. "Who's a bitch?" Somebody said. "Easy, that girl with-WAIT WHO?!" the four occupants of the rifles turned around to face an adult Luffy. "BASTARD!!" screamed the leader of the riflemen.

Luffy smiled. "I get that a lot." "GRAAAAH!"the four riflemen screamed, and fired at point blank range. "EAT THAT ASSHOLE!" screamed Usopp. "filthy pirate..." he mumbled, then turned to face his target, but then noticed something odd. "my-MY RIFLE!" he screamed as all four of the rifles were chopped in half.

"you know, being shot isn't as scary as it used to be." Luffy said as he smiled, and the bullets fell to the ground. "Wh-What are you?!" Usopp said, in a slightly smaller voice. "I'm -" suddenly a large weight fell upon Luffy's back, and sent him to the ground.

"Thanks Chopper." said Usopp in a strangely scared voice. "Do you suppose that guy is...?" he said slowly. Suddenly Usopp was flying through the air along with Chopper, Ninjin, Piman, and Tamanegi. "DAMNITT!" Usopp screamed. "WHAT ARE YOU?!" "I've been called a number of things over the past year, but the one thing you'll remember most of all is Luffy."

As Usopp landed in front of Nami, and looked over to where Luffy had jumped down, his eyes widened. "Luffy? Monkey. D. Luffy?" "That would be me, and three guesses who that "Bitch" over there is." Suddenly Usopp's face was crushed underneath a high heeled shoe. "So I'm a Bitch now, Huh?" "Arrgh..." Usopp's face turned into the very picture of fear as he tried to stand up.

"So Luffy, how are you still alive?" Chopper asked, sparkles in his eyes, happy to see his captain again. "I was never killed in the first place." "yeah, but why did the Marines try to make it seem like you were dead?" "The Marines is the Marines." Finally they reached the mansion after many odd glances from the townspeople.

"Re-Join the crew?! Sorry Luffy but life here is what I wanted it to be, and I can't leave Kaya or Mareth here with just the butler, Piman, Tamanegi, and Ninjin as defense for the village, I've got to stay. Chopper can go, but I'm afraid that I have to stay here. "It's your choice Usopp, I won't try to stop you, but just remember..." Luffy turned his back. "that we will always be here for you. You attacked me, and Nami, and I held back. You are still part of my crew, and you are and always will be my Nakama. We won't forget you Usopp, and I knew in your heart that you recognized me on the beach. You're trying to live up to something Usopp, and I know that. If you no longer want anything to do with the Straw Hat crew, then we will leave after stocking up on much needed supplies. But-"

Chopper cut him off. "Ummm, Luffy, there is a slight problem...The people of this village have wanted posters of you in all of the taverns, at Usopp's request, and they don't sell to pirates...Usopp and I are supposedly 'reformed' Pirates, so you're going to have to stay here until the black market trade ship comes about, which is tomorrow. And I really doubt you can stay in your ship without being attacked by the townspeople..."Chopper's voice trailed off into a slight giggle. "This mansion acts as a kind of secret sanctuary to pirates, and there is only one room left..." "so basically Nami and I have to share a room for a night, and buy our supplies tomorrow in the black market? That should be easy. And Chopper are you coming back?" Luffy said indifferently. "I guess so-" "WHAT ABOUT ME?! YOU EXPECT ME TO SHARE A ROOM WITH HIM?!" Nami Fumed. "Unfortunately, thats the idea." Kaya said again, a little intimidated by Nami.

"God Damn it..."Nami swore, as she walked into the room, Luffy trailing slowly behind, looking around, obviously searching for something. "So were you serious when you said that to Usopp about him living up to something?" Nami interrupted his thoughts. "Yeah, and Chopper and Kaya knew it which is why they're making us stay here."

"Something is wrong with Usopp. We've got the room underneath him, hadn't you noticed?" Nami blinked as her mind clicked into focus. "Wow, you're right. Usopp and Kaya are above us, hmm?" Then another thing clicked into focus into her mind. Luffy had somehow gotten to be on the intelligence level of even Robin, or herself. Then she turned and looked into the room. "thank god." She silently whispered to herself. There were two beds.

No sleep was granted to the main members of the Straw Hat crew that night, moans coming from upstairs constantly, both Luffy and Nami pretending to be asleep, but instead blushing furiously as they listened to the sounds coming through the thin concrete layer of which separated them from Usopp.

Inside of Usopp's room, he quickly stopped the thing he was doing, put on an all black suit, made sure Kaya was still asleep, then moved into the hallway.

When the noises stopped, both Luffy and Nami sighed happily as it seemed sleep would be granted after all.

Usopp moved down the stairs, now armed with a long kitchen knife, brandished in the dull artificial light of the hallway, an almost eerie dark glow to it. Usopp smiled as he approached Luffy and Nami's Room. As he entered, he noticed that Nami was still awake. Keeping to the ground. He carefully picked his way over to the side of the bed, and hit her on the head with the butt of the knife, causing her to roll over. Oddly enough, Luffy was awake too, and as he approached the figure of Luffy sleeping in the bed, smiling wickedly, he noticed something odd...Luffy...Had no face...Suddenly, a sword swung out of a nearby closet, flinging the knife from Usopp's hands.

"Figures. You're angry because you looked up to me as an idol, then I abandoned the crew." Usopp turned around."Wha-LUFFY?!" "I've gotten smarter since the last time we met. Luffy stepped out of a nearby closet, brandishing his sword, Nami following behind him, armed with a large and slightly menacing metal ball on the end of a pole that she had found inside of the closet.

"Sorry Luffy, I'm not too sure what happened to me..." Usopp said quietly. "It's OK..." Said a very sleep deprived Luffy, staring intently down at the knife. "Something about this looks familiar..." he said in a thoughtful voice, staring down at the knife,know wrapped solidly inside of a dark black sheath. "Yeah, it origionally was a weapon used by a corrupt pirate, I figured it'd be cool to have." Usopp blinked indifferently. "No, I mean I think I saw something in a book about it..."Luffy's voice trailed off. Suddenly his eyes flashed, and the knife was in the air, until it splashed into the water with a great noise. Usopp looked on curious. "Why'd you do that?" "I remembered. That knife was cursed about 20 years ago, and sorta just floated around pirates. Don't ask me, I just wanted to make sure it was gone."

A dark looming ship lowered anchor near the southern coast of the island, a large mass of shady men circling around what seemed to be goods of some kind, all bristling with weapons, one man with a club, another with a musket. The one that seemed to be the leader smiled. "Here we go again."

Luffy followed Usopp, after Nami and company were advised to stay behind. Shivering, Usopp made his way towards the ship, attracting many yells from the crew. "Well if it isn't little rich boy! How's your pirate _crew_ coming along?" the men laughed and roared. Luffy looked over, still a blank expression.

"And look at his _BUTLER_! Are you his defense from us, the black market pirates?" Luffy gazed over, a bored expression glued to his face once more. "No, I'm here to buy supplies. The townspeople don't like pirates, so I came here." "_PIRATES_?!" the group of men laughed. "So you listened to his stories too? Well I say Straw Hat Luffy, and his wanted poster are Bullshit! NOBODY is that strong except maybe for Capitan!"

The men kept up their assault, until one of them decided that it was a good idea to mock Usopp by drawing a mustache on a wanted poster of Luffy they had acquired from a local tavern. "Is that him, pretty boy? Hahahah-" He glanced at the poster, then at Luffy, Poster, Luffy, then back again. Luffy turned around, a wicked smile on his face, like the devil himself in human form. "So where was the section of _seafaring_ supplies?" The men yelped, and instantly were instructing Luffy where everything on the ship was, even charging less for some things. Usopp Laughed. "Who's lying now punks?"

"So you're still not coming huh?" Luffy asked, inquiring towards Usopp, as the black market pirates hoisted everything Luffy had bought onto the ship. "Sorry, I've got a duty here to..." He blushed, and turned to Kaya. "But goodbye, and thanks Luffy, I'm sorry I really did forget you after all these years." "I guess I can't read a person as well as I thought!" Luffy said with a smile. "But let's forget that. Chopper, you're coming right?" "I suppose so if Usopp isn't, I don't have much of a choice!" Chopper said with a smile.

"Hey girl, how 'bout givin us some _**support**_? That there's Straw Hat Luffy. You're gonna want to come with us, considering what we've heard he was doing in the past few years." The leader of the Black Market pirates cooed at Nami. "Shut up damn perverts." "Ooooh, feisty, eh?" Unfortunately for the leader, Nami was Nami, and soon, an iron pole smashed into his face. "Damn it girl, can't you understand flirting when you hear it?!" The leader cried, clutching his bloody nose, dark red ooze seeping through his hand, as he placed the box down with his one free hand, he looked around, and noticed Luffy was engaged in a conversation with Usopp and Kaya about their next destination, Chopper at his side, sparkles in his eyes at the new outlook to his old captain.

As the creepy men inched forward, captain pointing in her direction, Nami was terrified, she had backed up against a wall, and couldn't yell, unless she wanted a bullet through her heart, however ice coated it was. Teeth clutched, she looked around for a way out, and found one. "If you shoot me, you don't even want to know what will happen to you. And by the way, if you let me go, I'll show you a treasure, of unimaginable value." The men's eyes sparkled the way Chopper's did, as Nami pointed over to the knife in the water. "What is it?" "Looks old." "Were you lying girl?" The pirates mumbled as they stared in awe at the dark glow of the knife Luffy had thrown earlier.

Suddenly, the same glow in Usopp's eyes when he attacked Luffy with the knife was in the captain's eyes. "Damn" Nami thought as the rest of the crew slowly inched towards her, an indescribable evil in their eyes. Suddenly, they were flying through the air, spinning, not just in pain from a fist, but a huge gap in their stomachs was opened from a quickly propelled gomo no gomo no Sharp pistol fired through their stomachs.

The captain jumped at Luffy, anger in his eyes, but an odd calm, like that of the sea in Luffy's eyes. "Fool". Was all that Luffy said as the captain flew through the air, blood firing from his nose and stomach now like a rocket, propelling him slightly through the air, and a small amount of his blood mixing with the head of the Thousand Sunny, the rest mixing into the paste of the water along with that of his comrades. Nami fell to her knees, a slight blush adorning her face now, as Luffy had to save her again. "You O.K?" he asked as he looked down.

Nami frowned as she looked at the town of which Luffy had suggested they go next. "I've never heard of Tomesto before. What kind of a place is it?" Luffy frowned. "It is also sometimes called the town of the dead. It's a kind of town where bounty hunters reign, and receive many assignments from there. Hopefully, we'll find Brook there."

A lone man in a dark blue tuxedo was walking along a dank, musty, mist filled road, when a certain tombstone adorned the end of the road. 'Zeff of the red legs' adorned it. He sighed as a skeleton in a dark purple tuxedo marched up beside him. "You have my condolences Sanji." The man in the blue tux nodded before leaving the road to meet up with somebody else, while the skeleton stayed. "Death is a funny thing eh, Zeff of the Red Legs? You just don't know when it ends."


	4. The Musician

**LOST TIME**

Unfortunately, I've had to make several immediate changes to the story due to reviews which pointed out a number of obvious mistakes on my part, so as such, I'm going to try and stay clear to the views and how most characters in one piece would act, and also try to stay true to things like names and whatnot, but if you can find anything that I overlooked, please say so in a review. And now for Lost Time. -Coreman

The bright blue sky seemed to have a mind of it's own on this particular day, wind whipping the Thousand Sunny in every which way, causing Luffy to have to resort to every ounce of strength he had to keep it on course. But at they're destination, things are not as bright. Clouds blocked the sky, light shining down through holes seemingly ripped through the sky with a very disheveled and hard to balance sword, thrown randomly at an imaginary enemy in the sky.

"We're here. The map says this is Tomesto." Nami stated, pointing to a small island, covered by dark grey clouds. Luffy nodded. "Yeah, from the description I read about in a book said that it is supposedly a cursed town, and only choice few bounty hunters and other pirates go there. Like I said before, it's basically a bounty hunter haven." Luffy said, pointing to numerous ships docked at the shore. Some marines, some bounty hunter's small vessels, and even somebody from the Zeff Restaurant was there. "Zeff Restaurant?" Luffy wondered aloud. "I think that's where Sanji went. Maybe we could find out some information about where he is." Luffy said, asking the question to Chopper and Nami.

The Thousand Sunny landed, dropping anchor in a more desolate place, slightly around the cove, to avoid the bounty hunters and pirates that might recognize him. "Here." He said to Nami and Chopper, handing them both dark colored cloaks, telling them to put them on. "Can't risk anyone recognizing us. We want to avoid conflict, if possible." He said, pulling his dark colored cloak over his head. Slowly, they marched into the town, Luffy at the head, followed by Nami, then Chopper in human form. A man watched them from a shadowy corner, looking from a slip of paper, to the group, then back again. "I don't believe it..." he said as he glanced at the paper marked: Monkey. D. Luffy

1,000,000,000,000 Beli. "I can't believe that any of the great pirates still exist..."

"So where are we supposed to find Brook in this madhouse again?" Chopper whispered to Luffy. "I'm not quite sure, but we should see him around here. The marines put out a wanted poster of Brook saying he would most likely be found here. You see, in some ways Brook is still a pirate, as he still makes all of his perverted comments, and steals money. He has a very minor bounty though, maybe about 2,000 Beli. Just about that of a common crook. And on most of the marine posters it says that he likes to stay in a graveyard to the north. So are we going?" Chopper nodded in agreement, while Nami still stayed indifferent. "Look on the bright side Nami, at least he's not Sanji!" Luffy said with a positive attitude, getting him a look from Nami that could scare most people so much they would go and hide in a corner. That is, people like Chopper, who, following that criteria, promptly did so, but in his usual way. "You're hiding the wrong way again Chopper." Nami and Luffy said as they sweatdropped.

"Hello beautiful!" A man wearing a blue tux and yellow hair combed in a slightly disheveled way. "Not again Sanji, every time you come here, you hit on me, and every time you leave, I hit you with something." A lady wearing a purple shirt and long black pants with long blond hair spoke in an annoyed tone to the chef, who was, as usual seemingly smoking love tobacco. "You'll learn one day, they always do!" He said with a lecherous smile. "Define '_they_'." The girl spoke in a harsh tone, and, ignoring him, went off on her own way, throwing a glass bottle at Sanji's head, who was, unfortunately, unable to dodge, and was hit in the head quite hard. He walked back to his ship in what seemed to be quite a good mood, despite the large sized bump rendered on his head, and set sail for the Zeff Restaurant.

"Seems like I missed something...Naaaah." he said as his ship left the port, sailing around the bend, until it came to the Thousand Sunny docked at the back. Sanji's eyes went wide. "So that's where it's been...Unless..." He then noticed that some lights were on inside the ship, and it was clean. As such, curiosity got the better of him, as he docked his small green ship at the side of the ship, and boarded it to see what was happening. "This city is way too big to find just _ONE_ skeleton..." Nami whined to Luffy, in the captain's room of the ship. A storm had erupted, and soaked their clothes, and poor Chopper was drenched, all of them sitting in front of a heater, waiting for the storm to blow over, which Nami had warned them that would not happen for at least one day. Chopper was sniffling and sneezing, his feet in a bucket of Steaming water, waiting for the storm to blow over so he could go to bed in his quarters. "Anyone wanna get drenched?" Luffy said joking around. "Cause we're sure as hell not getting anywhere else in this weather.

Sanji had jumped at the sound of the storm, and after the first bolt of lightning and clapping thunder, he dived into the nearest quarters, the men's quarters, and sat down. "Well, at least I'm not in that stupid boat, or else I might be dead." he remembered the room much better than any other. This was the place Luffy first had the idea to split the crew, after making a decision to go to an island, and the rest of the crew deciding that he was an idiot, and should ignore him. Everyone knows a D would never give up on anything, but Luffy was almost forced to. Then came the fateful day where on a random island, Luffy had declared that pirating was not the life for the people in his crew.

"I may be an idiot, but I can tell one thing from all of you. None of you want to ever have to pillage any town, hurt anyone that isn't a marine or pirate, or even participate in half the activities that most pirates would. Well, I accept your opinion, and agree completely. But there is one other thing. I can tell that each of you has a separate dream, that being a pirate is interfering with. Zoro, you want to fight Mihawk and become the greatest swordsman, but what are the odds of us meeting him again on the sea? Dismissed. Nami, you want to plot a map of the world, but how can you do that if you're dead, which happens to be an occupational hazard of pirates. Dismissed."

Most People would think that a D would never give up, under any circumstances. A D would always go on, unless it endangered those close to him, or endangered his Nakama. One would not be so sure in this case if anyone was actually in danger, or this was just Luffy's reaction to all of his dreams being crushed, but the look on his face told the crew he was serious. "Usopp, your dream is to become a mighty warrior of the sea. You've done that, even if you're a coward, so your dream is fulfilled. Dismissed. Sanji, your dream is to find the all blue, but how can you do that when we're this far away from the East or even West Blue, and instead, we're on Raftel with an empty treasure chest, and some dead people. Dismissed. Chopper, you want to become the best doctor in the world, but you can't do that when your only chance to practice medicine is when we're injured. Dismissed.

Franky, you want to build the best ship in the world, hmm? Well unfortunately, right now, we're stuck with this one, no grand caravel like you thought. Dismissed. Robin, you want to live in peace and trinity, while not letting the secret of the Poneglyphs get into the hands of the wrong people. Well go live with some natives in the new world then?! Dismissed! BROOK! You want to go and meet Laboon again, well good news. When I'm on my way back, I'll drop you off to see him. DIS-MISSED. HEY, LOOK AT THAT! THE STRAW HAT CREW IS DOWN TO ME! BUT I WANT TO BE PIRATE KING! SOME KING I AM, JUST LOOK AT ALL THE TREASURE HERE!? WELL, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! I DON'T NEED ANYONE TO TAKE CARE OF ME! YOU CAN JUT GO, TRY TO FUFIL YOUR DREAMS, THEN **_HAVE THEM CRUSHED IN FRONT OF YOU_**!!"

Sanji wasn't the only one thinking about the smartest thing Luffy had ever said and what had happened to him, Nami was pondering it as well, along with Chopper, who's thoughts were constantly interrupted by sneezing and coughing fits. While Sanji was wondering what had happened to Luffy, Nami and Chopper were wondering what had happened to the captain. He seemed so very...Different. He wasn't the old Luffy, that was cheerful, happy and always ready for adventure. He was a new Luffy, a dark and disappointed Luffy, who's outlook on life had changed. He was actually mature, and not as much of an idiot. Luffy, was sleeping, not curled up in a blanket like the others, but lying flat on his back, hand on his chest, like he was holding something. Then Chopper and Nami thought of one thing they had not seen this whole time. "Where is Luffy's hat?" they both thought at once.

Day came, Sanji stirring from the hold, still soaking wet. At the time, he had not thought of the consequences of going onto the ship, maybe he was just curious. He sighed as he jumped over the edge into his boat and rowed towards shore. "Just great, I missed my ship. Now I've got to go back tomorrow." Then he turned and took a finally glance at the Sunny. Unfortunately, he turned before seeing Nami walk onto the deck, stretch, then walk back into the cabin with a yawn. "Jeez, where'd Luffy go to..?" She asked as she looked around. Most things were not damaged from the typhoon, just tossed around, even the trees were fine. "What kind of a typhoon was that?" She wondered aloud. "Oi, Nami!" Chopper walked out of the captain's room, no longer being infected by his cold. "Have you seen Luffy?" "No, I was just looking for him." They both looked at each other. "I was going to ask what happened to his hat." They both said proudly at the same time, until realization struck. "...We both had the same idea..." They sweatdropped, then proceeded to search for their captain.

"Not here!" Chopper exclaimed as he climbed down from the crow's nest. "Not there either." Nami said, pointing to the Men's and Women's quarters. Chopper climbed down into the hold, then shortly came back up. "Not in the hold either, but..." Chopper started sweating nervously, and held up a small cigarette, with the label "ZR" on it. "Luffy may have been wrong about Sanji not being here..." Chopper sighed as he placed it down. "Seems like he used it as a shelter, without knowing it was still in use." Chopper added, and Luffy wasn't down there, and I could see he hadn't touched this either. The coals were still hot, and there were no cigarette droppings either, so Luffy hasn't seen this. Sanji left just a little while ago as well from what I can tell." Nami's expression darkened. "Un..." She said darkly, not too fond of memories of the perverted old chef. "Lets find Luffy. He's probably in the town, screw-mess-um, I'm not sure what he'd be doing right about now." "Un." Chopper agreed.

Luffy looked back up at the tower. "So Brook's here..." He mumbled, looking up at the marine base. "I noticed they'd taken down all of the posters..." He said as he reached for the door. "Luffy, itai!!" Nami and Chopper finally saw him, running as fast as they could in order to prevent him from entering the marine base. "Eh? Chopper, Nami, Nani?" he asked, as they came running over. "Luffy, don't go in there! There's a marine captain who has..."

Her sentence was suddenly interrupted by a loud laugh from the top of the tower. A man stood there, waving his arms, marines surrounding him, pointing to Luffy, and bragging about "I'm right! I'm right!" The marines looked down in horror, as Luffy stared back up at them, a normal, calm glance. "GET HIM! EVEN NUMBERS CAN DEFEAT THE GREAT STRAW HAT LUFFY!!" he cried, as loud as he laughed. Marines poured out of various different places, buildings, undergrowth, some even climbed down off the tower. Finally, the Straw Hat crew was surrounded by marines. Nami and Chopper looked on in horror. Luffy looked around, eyes shaded under his hair. "Looks to be a couple thousand. Good, I was getting out of shape anyway." He said with a smile. "Chopper, use heavy point. Nami, I don't assume you can use a sword?" She shook her head, still in utter disbelief at the massive number of enemies. "Never have." "Hang on." Luffy turned. "Um, it's gonna be kind of unfair for you guys if I just take you all on by myself, and my Nakama will kinda slow me down if you give me a pole." A long black staff was brought forward, much to the marine captain's discontent. Nami grabbed the pole. "All right, lets go now." Luffy announced, acting slightly like a child. Nami smiled as she saw a hint of the old Luffy inside him, until a number of bold marines rushed forward. "AAAAAAAHHHH!!"

Marines flew every which way, as Luffy fought like a demon, wielding just his sword, not even using his gum gum powers. Four marines jumped at him, and he stumbled back to avoid the blow, bumping into Nami, causing the swords to nick his chest. "What did I tell you?" he joked, then sliced the marines in half. Nami and Chopper, on the other hand were having more trouble. Chopper had received many cuts on his hands from punching marines wielding swords, and Nami hadn't fought in nearly one year, causing her to be slower, and not as strong with the staff. Due to this, she had received many cuts and bruises to the stomach, hands, and some marines ducked shots, and sliced towards her legs. "Damn, I can't keep up with this!" "Me neither!!" Chopper whined in reply to Nami's cry of anguish. They looked at each other as a pair of marines approached, and, simultaneously, punched each one nearly a block away. They looked at each other. Then at the marines. "RAAAAAAHHHH!!" Nami and Chopper shouted as they ran towards the marines.

Luffy turned to see if their fight was finished yet. On his side, the corpses of nearly 1000 marines scarred the ground. If one looked closely, they would notice blood on Luffy's face from slicing so many marines up in close combat, and his sword was a dark red color, some clogged up blood still clinging to it, steel barely visible. And the before blue cloak was now a dark red color, creepy, and with numerous scratches in it. To make a long story short, for once, Luffy looked like a serial killer, instead of the happy go lucky pirate he used to be. But little known to him, the marine captain was sitting at the top, taking pictures, mouth gaping open, and once again comparing Luffy to the poster he held still clutched in his hand. Biting his lip at the foolish greedy mistake he had made he phoned in a call to headquarters. "Headquarters, we have a code Billion."

The marine captain ran for his life from the battlefield, until he had reached a pod of some sort. He hopped in, and set it to HQ. A bright light shone from where he once was, then he was gone. The marines, scattered all over the ground, most dead, some dying, and some unconscious lay there, and the once green grass had changed into a dark red color, more seeping from the marines on the ground. Nami and Chopper breathed heavily, red covering their clothes, Chopper's fists, and Nami's new, once dark black, now dark red staff. Luffy hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Good job guys, now all that's left is to find Brook." He said as he started to enter the Marine Base.

Suddenly, Nami and Chopper fell from exhaustion. "He's just as hyper." Nami joked, as she tried to stand up. Chopper however was unable to move, and as such, Luffy had to carry him into the base. Thankfully, he was able to turn back into normal Chopper before passing out. As Luffy descended down the stairwell, Nami remembered the question she was going to ask him. "Hey Luffy, what happened to your hat?" "Nami, now's not really the time...I'll explain back at the ship. The prisoners are down here." He said, changing the subject, and pointing at a long line of swiveling stairs, with wet goo and slime on them. Nami cringed. "Greeeeat. Just great. I'm probably going to fall down these things..."She mumbled, motioning to Luffy to go first.

The dank dungeon was not only home to a large sum of critters, but the home to many criminals who slowly awaited their fate. In one cage, a man in a dark purple suit sat, playing a sad tune on the violin, focused mainly on the violin as many men wearing bandannas and picking at scars screamed for him to keep it down. "Hey mask boy! SHUT UP WITH THE VIOLIN! IT'S NOT EVEN A REAL INSTRUMENT ANYMORE!" One man shouted at the top of his lungs. Brook stopped playing and looked up. "Not to scum like you, but I will continue to play, thank you very much."He said in a cool collected monotone voice, looking back at the dark brown instrument and proceeded to polish it with a handkerchief.

Luffy looked ahead as he dragged Chopper, and now Nami, who had collapsed halfway down the stairs on his back, across the prison tile until he came to a marine sitting at a desk, pen in hand, paper in another. "I'm here for a 'Brook'" Luffy said, still wearing the cloak covered in blood. The marine looked up at Luffy blankly. "You'll have to sign this." He said, pushing a piece of paper in front of Luffy. Nami blushing a deep crimson color as she had to be carried down a long flight of stairs, and had taken some things the wrong way. "You can put me down, just hang on to him." She said, still red, turning her face from him, and pointing at Chopper. Luffy gently placed her down on the tile, and signed the form. The marine went away, and came back with Brook. Luffy quickly hooded Nami, himself, and Chopper to keep from attracting the marine, as he was in no mood to kill him. "These are your new captors 'Brook'. And hold onto this cane for me, captain, its a fencing weapon." he said, handing the weapon to Luffy, and pushing brook in his direction. Brook kept hold of his violin, and time had not changed him, as he never had any skin when he was in the Straw Hat crew, and as he walked up the stairs, next to Luffy and company, who were still dangling from Luffy's shoulders.

"Just who are you?" Brook asked Luffy, in a still calm voice, not noticing who the people on his shoulders were. "Nobody you know." Luffy mumbled, the marine still in earshot. Finally, at the top of the stairs, Luffy put his hood down. "Phew, finally, I really hate wearing these hoods sometimes." He breathed out, as Brook stood stupefied in amazement. "L-Luffy? How did you get in here? There were marines everywhere?" Brook shuddered as Luffy opened the door, reveling the blood stricken battlefield. At the sight in front of him, there was one thing on Brook's mind. "Luffy, who killed all these marines?" He smiled. "Never mind, I think I know." Chopper awoke to seeing a large skeleton staring down at him. "Hello Chopper." In response, chopper decided to remember Brook the way he always had. He stood up, cleared his throat, looked at the ceiling, and screamed.

Nami awoke inside the ship, and sat up. She had obviously been asleep for quite some time, as she was inside of the women's quarters, when a thought struck her mind. Luffy had averted the question about his hat? What had happened? Then another thought struck her. Why was she so interested in what had happened to Luffy? Mind whizzing, Nami pushed it off as mere boredom, and nothing else to think of. And, knowing Luffy, now Brook was in the crew as well. She stood up. "Well, I'm going to get these questions answered right now." And headed towards the captain's quarters.

Sorry about the bad chapter ending, I'm not done yet, and I'm almost out of ideas. We're going to need a new sharpshooter to replace Usopp, so any ideas? Please read and review!


	5. Time on the ship I

**Lost Time**

It seems that I'm almost out of replacement ideas, I've received some, but the problem is that I really need ideas for OC characters most, as I'm probably going to make a number of OC enemy pirates, people related to Whitebeard, etc. Please review, and give your thoughts on this. Also, I'm really sorry about being almost a month late with the update, I was at summer camp, my summer job, and a lot of other things that prevented my usage of my computer.

**I PROMISE THE NEXT UPDATE WILL BE SOON! IM SORRY!!**

Nami was intrigued by the thought of a smart Luffy, and as such, she marched into the captain's quarters intent on the explanation of something like this. "Luffy!" Nami screamed as she stormed into the captain's room, the air of calm suddenly shattered by the loud noise. Luffy looked over. "Nani?" "You said that you would tell me what happened to your hat." Nami sneered as Luffy seemed to be horrified that she remembered. "Come to think of it Luffy, where is your hat?" Chopper and Brook asked, looking quizzically at Luffy. Luffy sweated, as if under pressure. "Do you really want me to tell you..?" He asked slowly. All three nodded. "Allright, well a promise is a promise. So here it is. It all started right after I disbanded the crew...

"GOD DAMN IT! GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!" I had started screaming and smashing rocks, after watching the ship sail off into the distance, after requesting you guys leave me on the island. I stormed in circles, smashing rocks and trees, flinging even the largest boulders he could find until his strength was exhausted. "Believe me, that took about a day and a half." Luffy commented to his crew as he continued the story. And after that, I sat down and thought, thought about how my stupidity had led us into terrible traps, like Nami almost marrying that leopard, us getting attacked on the sky islands, etc. and after I was done with that, I stood up, and stormed over to where the treasure was supposed to be, opened it up, found a note, and...Luffy stopped the story for a moment, reached into his pocket and pulled out a note, scribbled hastily on a yellowed piece of paper:

Dear Luffy:

I knew you'd make it here, but sorry, Whitebeard got here first.

We have One piece, and Jeez, it really is awesome. But the thing is, Whitebeard found something

in One piece. Before he was a crippled old man, he was a great pirate, strong beyond imagining,

and we found a devil fruit that could bring him back to that time...In a way.

But the problem was, he had to have one piece, so we've taken it with us, along with the title of

"Pirate king." and one more thing that you might make sense out of Luffy,

Which item e bear arc d have s gold net into same net, annie d retired strength offer

them e crawfish ewlsat totem o.

Good luck Luffy, and good luck de-throning Whitebeard.

Ace

The three peered at the strange order of words, Luffy announced, "It's code for something, I just don't know what. I also know that Whitebeard has become pirate king." The crew gasped. "What about the marines? Aren't they doing anything?" Nami asked, confused. "They're trying, but they can't find him, and are getting pummeled by his men, who are basically enslaving the whole world." Luffy clenched his fist. "And this is why I'm after one piece again, if I can get it, then I can de-throne Whitebeard, and save everyone. Thank goodness his tyranny hasn't extended beyond the grand line." The crew gaped at him. "...And what about your hat?" Chopper asked. Luffy's face darkened even more. "I returned it to shanks, and that's what matters..." "Please, enlighten us on what happened." Nami sneered. Luffy turned. "...Whitebeard...Shanks tried to stop him. To put it mildly...He failed, and I returned his hat. After that, I learned that one needed intelligence to become a pirate." He pointed to a bookshelf.

"I read all of those, and more. Learned how to use a sword, gun, etc, learned how to make weapons, be a carpenter, some minor medical abilities, even learned basic wildlife survival skills." The crew gasped at this, Nami's jaw dropping at the pile of books, probably 7 feet tall in the corner. "And those..?" She asked. "Read all those too, except for one." he threw a book to the floor reading:  
"Navigation for beginners." Nami gasped, along with the rest of the crew, her at the book, the others hypnotized by the enormous stack of books.

Luffy stood up, receiving numerous quizzical and amazed looks from the crew. The majority of them were thinking "Luffy can read?" While Nami was wondering if it was simply coincidence that he never got to reading the navigation book, or something else, that most thought Luffy was incapable of. Interrupting everyone's thoughts, Luffy turned, smiling. "Happy? Now you know where I've been this past year. And after all of that, I trained, waiting for my chance to kill Whitebeard!" Little known to them, there was an unknown person, listening, jaw on the floor, as low as it could go.

Silence claimed the ship, and Luffy's faint smile faded as if some dream had been shattered in his mind. "But first thing is that I need to find where Whitebeard is hiding, and Ace's note should tell me where, and I really need someone to decode it." he pointed to the bit of paper in his hand, and as the man outside heard this, he seemed to perk up. He smiled beneath a dark blue top hat with an odd skull in the middle, then jumped off the side of the boat, an evil smile adorning his face. "Luffy...I'll have to remember that name..." He mumbled as he lept off into town, two large swords glimmering on his back, snug inside two ruby encrusted sheaths.

On the mind of our notorious cook, other than the usual romantic mush was the fact that the thousand sunny was on the shore of the island, sail down, and not eroded at all...floating, with barely needing any repair, if any at all. "Someone must be captaining it..." He thought, while furiously working with a pan, creating a roasted salad, while rotating the pan. Reaching down, deep in thought, he turned the knob on the side of the oven off, and slowly lifted the contents of the pan onto a plate sitting, waiting for company on a shelf looking out into the restaurant.

"Order up." he said, a normal monotone voice sounding, alerting a waiter who came and took the plate to it's fate, company consumed by a tall man in a marine coat, who dabbed at his face with a napkin, before getting up and walking towards the wanted posters, pinning a new one on the wall, however, Sanji was a bit too busy with his next order to notice the contents of the bit of yellowed paper among others, the one shabby corner in the restaurant, when a number of men, bearing swords, some cleaves, even some with over sized weapons roped onto their backs crowded around the new poster.

It was closing time, the crowd still crowded around the paper, some with pads scribbling locations furiously while all the time, gaping at the amazing bounty. "1 billion...wow." one said to another. "The navy's never put up such a large bounty...maybe on gold roger, dragon MAYBE...But I've never heard of this kid before..." One man who now donned a brown fedora stared in amazement at the poster..."Never thought he'd get that far..." "You met him?!" "Yes, same with the head chef here." The last comment sparked Sanji's attention down to a badge on his shirt, bearing 'Head Chef Sanji" in black letters upon a dark grey surface. Finished with cleaning, he looked over to the dark grey board, walked over, the pirates and bounty hunters gathered around like a clan moved out of the way in order to let him pass, all while giving him odd looks, some quizzical, others curious. And when his eyes finally fell upon the poster, the puzzle of the thousand sunny clicked into place. "But...Isn't he dead?" Sanji mumbled under his breath.

The poster read;

WANTED: Monkey. D. LuffyReward: 1,000,000,000 Beli

Is considered armed, and extremely dangerous. Wanted dead preferably, for more information contact marine headquarters. Information on his whereabouts or how he can be found or located will be rewarded with 25 of the original reward.

As the awe inspiring blue ocean sparkled at the bow of the thousand sunny, the ship left the decrepit port sailing towards the horizon, the sun now sinking low in the sky, tired and coming to rest under a blanket of water. Sitting on the head of the ship was Luffy, seemingly condemned to soul searching at this time. Memories flooded him from the olden days of drinking, singing, searching, fighting. All of these old memories of his Nakama now washed into his mind like the seemingly endless ocean passed softly against the side of the ship. "You allright?" Luffy jumped, and turned slightly, relaxing at his company. "Yeah, I'm fine, but why is it so hard to believe that I can learn, just out of curiosity..." he asked to the orange haired woman next to him. "Well, to put it mildly, you did have quite a lot of combat knowledge back then, but even Usopp's tricks could trick you. You were quite gullible, easily impressed, and, well, you were like that the whole time. We never saw a different you." "So it's my fault." she grinned, replying with a sneer. "yeah, pretty much.!" they both smiled, then, out of the blue, Nami was standing next to him peering into the sunset as well, pointing out various colors, along with oooohs, and aaaahs from the two of them.

Morning stung the eyes of the sleep deprived chopper, standing up, after being attacked by spiders in his unfortunately decrepit room, and as such, he cleared the cobwebs and slowly walked down onto the main floor. Brook greeted him with an odd look, then pointed to the kitchen, where Luffy was wearing a chef's hat, seemingly dancing around a white stove, knives flailing and food flying through the air. After about a half hour, he came out with eggs, scratching his head bashfully and pointing to the ceiling of the room where the rest of what was to be consumed by the crew, consumed by the roof. While Chopper ate, and Brook tried to do so, Nami was chasing Luffy around hitting him with a chair for his screw up and 'ruining her breakfast.' "Maybe she didn't sleep too well either." mumbled a certain sleep deprived reindeer as Brook pulled a spider out of his skull, trying to wince the whole time.

Standing at the front of the ship, Luffy decided to announce to them where they were headed next. "All right everyone, last time I entered the grand line with four extraordinary Nakama, and I have only retrieved three so far. So before we head of gallivanting into the grand line after Whitebeard and the rest of our Nakama, we need to find one more person. The only ones that I know for certain that are outside of the grand line that are left are Sanji and maybe Franky-" Suddenly, Nami interrupted. "So we're voting on who to go after first?" Luffy's face shifted to an irritated expression as Nami had finished his sentence for him. "Yeah, just say who you want, and why. They're both out of the way, Franky more so than Sanji."

The three seemed deep in thought, until Brook spoke up. "Sanji. He cooks better food." "YOU DON'T EVEN EAT MORON!" the three screamed to an unscathed Brook. "well thats my vote...if you don't like it, then...Point taken." Luffy smacked himself in the head. "Idiot. So who's next." "Franky." Chopper said. "He can repair the ship if we break it again, all things considered..." Chopper stated. "Nami, this means you decide who we get." Luffy said, looking to Nami, who was deep in thought, possibly reminiscing about old times...

"NAMI-SWAAAAAN!" Sanji's normal annoying screech played into her mind, not exactly the most pleasant thing to think of...His constant tries to woo Nami and any others of the female gender on board the ship. Franky, usually quiet, not exactly a raging moron like Sanji, and an engineer to top. Sanji, a chef of excelling quality, would have to leave his millionaire enterprise restaurant to become re-engaged in pirating, to even have his restaurant shut down and his funds relinquished by the navy...not exactly the biggest help in the world.

"Franky. We need an engineer to fix this bug hole up." Nami said, her vote cast, and these words caused Luffy's smile to fade once more. "There's a problem..." He said slowly, as if explaining these words to a young child, then scratching his head in embarrassment. "But I have no idea where Franky is." The crew stared, his words hitting home.

**Thats the end of this chapter...sorry, but I'd really like the readers to decide who they go for. I saw I forgot franky in chapter one, and origionally was planning a gruesome fate for him...but hey, I've not killed anyone! (So far) Not to break that yet. Also, the guy on the ship earlier is gonna be the 10****th**** crewmember, and no, he's not gonna be a swordsman. Usopp had a number of jobs I've gotta replace, comic genius, and inventor...**

**One last thing: sorry about the spacing, and the fact that I've taken a while for this. It was mainly a summer filler, and my job and camp are over so I should be updating more.**


	6. Questions at the bar

**LOST TIME**

finally! I'm not updating months later and I'm outta my goddamn camp! Also, I've got the whole next three or four stories on my desk, laptop, clipboard, and in my enormous stack of paper all drawn on. Yes I do practice drawing...alot. So without further ado... LOST TIME Chapter 6.

A polished brown wooden desk sat in front of an appearing old bald man, several cigars jammed into his mouth, smoke pouring out, as the dusty ceiling air of the tavern was clouded with mist, some settling over the man's several customers. Luffy and Nami marched in, as Chopper and Brook would have given them away as the Straw Hat crew. They had earlier on decided to enter to see if by some chance they could find out Franky's whereabouts. They sat down at the front, and the barkeep went shuffling off, to get them their drinks. "So why here?" Nami asked Luffy curiosity getting the better of her.

"Where else than where the village rumors spread, pirates gather, and where all the wanted posters are..." He pointed to a wall, which they walked over to, and sifted through the posters, but not finding one of Franky. Luffy shrugged, then walked over to a group of pirates. "Have any of you heard of a Cyborg Franky? He used to be in the straw hat crew." The pirates looked at him. "That depends...what do you have to offer little boy?" One sneered. "How about 250 Million Beli?" Luffy said, still uncaring of what the pirates said. "250 million you say?" "From the navy, yes." "And how?" Luffy plastered a grin on his face.

"I can only tell you if you tell me where Cyborg Franky is...But I'm a man of my word." "No kiddo, but I'd like to see the money first." Luffy sighed. "Seriously, I can only really tell you the truth if you give me where Franky is."

"All right...but how about a collateral...You know, something to hang onto if you don't keep your word..."

The pirate sneered as Luffy unhitched his sword from his belt before handing it to the pirate. "This is worth about 250 thousand Beli, but has more sentimental value than anything else.." The pirate pushed it away. "So you're plannin to rip us off, eh?! Information that's worth 250 million for 250 thousand?!" Luffy's mood seemed to darken, before finally, his voice showing that he was on the verge of killing someone, very slowly and quietly he spoke.

"Either way...You're just speaking for money, you god damned piece of shit." The pirate looked up, grin widening. "You obviously don't know who I am." Luffy smiled an evil smile, hair covering his eyes now. "Same here, so start talking, or I'll start killing."

The pirate's sneer widened. "Just so you know, I'm the thirty million Beli rookie, like that Luffy started out as." "Just 30 million?" "THATS A LOT YOU KNOW DAMN PIRATE!" A smile now played onto Luffy's lips. "I'm about 30 times as much as you...I think in the billions...maybe more." At this, suddenly, pirates around the bar, all seemed to close in, most pulling out gun's to keep their strong adversary at a distance, and yet still collect the billion reward. "Well, that's awfully convenient...we've got over 100 men in here...all with swords..."

"And guns." Luffy finished, smiling at the overconfident pirates. "KILL HIM!" The leader shouted, and several pirates jumped at Luffy, who sidestepped, sending them reeling into another group of pirates. "You know, having a hundred pirates in a barfight, leaves little space for them to maneuver," He sent a group flying with a swat from his sword, still sheathed, yet blood flew from various parts of the pirates from the force of his swing.

Many more charged, only to die in the air as Luffy spun, making sure not to hit Nami, or the man he was interrogating. The barkeep however, was lucky to go and hide behind his desk, bodies and weapons clattering above him.

"Another problem emerges as well! No matter where I swing, I hit them." Luffy said, picking up the now seemingly small man up in his left hand, while sending the others flying with his right.

Nami gasped, as an almost evil crooked smile snuck onto Luffy's face. "And best of all, there's lots of people to kill."

Finally, Luffy held up the man in his left hand, showing him the destruction he had caused, as the barkeep timidly stuck his head up, prepared to shoot back down in order to avoid being killed. Luffy slowly looked over at the man, timidly trying to escape his grasp. "Now I'll ask again...NICELY." He said.

"H-He's back at Water 7...B-But it-its sinking...W-Water 7 is S-Sinking!" "Now that wasn't so hard...WAS IT?!"

The man shrank back, shaking his head vigorously. "N-No, not at all!" Luffy turned. "Good. Now I'm going to leave, and you're going to give all the money you get from telling the marines 'Where' I am to the barkeep, since I wrecked his tavern. And if not.." Luffy glared at the man, sitting in the corner.

"I will find you, and kill you." Was all Luffy said before turning, and leaving. "Come on, Nami, we're going." Nami swallowed, and followed Luffy out.

The walk to the ship was quiet, Luffy's hair covering his eyes, Nami looking over at him like he would spring up and kill her any second, and made sure her Clima Tact was ready, even though she probably couldn't do much.

"You know I didn't want to do what I did." Luffy broke the silence, the air of rage Nami had thought she had felt from him no longer there.

"Then why the hell did you kill all those people?"

"Information..You heard." "THAT'S STILL NO REASON TO GO BERZERK! YOU KILLED 99 PEOPLE LUFFY! DON'T YOU HAVE ANY FEELING OF COMPASSION?!"

"You didn't have quite the same reaction to the marines I killed...more of a 'Wow' was what I heard. You killed at least a hundred marines you know. In your whole time of pirating."

"I thought that we were a peace main group. Just sailing around, and not killing millions of people." Nami muttered.

"Nami..." Luffy looked up, eyes now shown, and suddenly, Nami noticed a large piece of yellowed paper in his hand, and tears were seeming to form. "Nami, they say I've killed at least ten million people in my lifetime." The words struck deep, and Nami swallowed. "T-Ten million?" Luffy was crying now, full blast, orbs of water sinking into the soil under the layer of green grass. "And...Nami, they have a list of pirate captains I've killed here...Right on top..."

He stopped. He couldn't speak anymore. Luffy's wanted poster, now with a darker, and more dangerous looking Luffy on the front read at the top of the killed pirates list: Pirate Captain Red Haired Shanks.

Luffy fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face full force. "Come on, just because you were near him when he died doesn't mean a thing. We all know that you didn't do it, and thats what matters. It doesn't matter what other people think." "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TOWNS PEOPLE?! HUH? MY HOME? MY FAMILY? THE MAYOR? MACHINKO? WHAT ABOUT THEM?!"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up...this isn't the first time this has happened...I mean with the fighting..." Luffy was still on the ground. No longer crying, yet his hair still covered his eyes. Without saying a word, he nodded, and got on the ship, and climbed up into the crows nest. Nami looked up and was greeted by Chopper and Brook. "What happened?" "Did Luffy get hurt?" "Did someone steal something from him?" The wanted poster floated down onto the ground a little ways away. "You could say that." Nami replied to Brook. "Someone definitely stole something from him."

Night came, an eternal bliss for most of the straw hat crew, asleep, the ship rolling in the sky blue waves, even at night. The moon reflected over the water in a certain splendor, its white light giving light to the straw hat crew that was still awake.

Luffy, still sitting in the crow's nest, was denied sleep, his mind abuzz about what Nami had said. SHOULD he really be this upset? Probably not, "But the townspeople will kill me if they see me." He laughed as he spoke aloud. In the lower decks, Chopper too was awake, searching through the lower part of the ship for his medical supplies, when he found a chest, marked with a large "DO NOT OPEN! -Luffy" Sign carved onto it. On the back, a small demon head was carved, and inside there seemed to be a book.

Thinking nothing of it, chopper continued his search, until he found his tools, one needle particularly bloody, as if crudely used by someone...or something...

Far off into the distance, thousands of miles away from the thousand sunny, a small body shaped boat with many odd designs on it floated through the water, three men crowded around a wanted poster, and one man tied to a chair.

"This 'Monkey D Luffy' Is most interesting, don't you think?" One man in a large blue cape embroidered with a brain with puppet strings coming out of it said to another, tied to a chair in sea stone rope, his mouth gagged.

"Indeed Mouata. Now the navy is giving away free money? And quite a lot too!" Said a second, wearing a dark cape with a picture of a heart with puppet strings on his cloak.

"You are all fools. That is Shank's friend, the one that fought Whitebeard before..."

"Before I was Blessed." Whitebeard walked into the room, as he finished the man's sentence. "Aaaah, yes, I remember this boy." He crushed the paper in his hand. "He's the one that fought me, and gave me this."

Whitebeard spoke softly now, as he pulled up his arm revealing a tiny scar. "Indeed, the one scar that has defiled your blessed skin great one." Mouata bent low, bowing low, and motioning for the other to do the same.

"I have one final job for you, the Spirit Trio, capable of controlling a man's mind, heart and soul." Whitebeard motioned to the three bowing before him.

"As I have given you your powers, you shall now use them to crush Monkey D. Luffy, and take the reward from the navy, to use as your own before you leave and live in luxury!" "Yes my liege!" The trio groveled. "Destroy the one named Monkey D. Luffy!" He screamed, deep voice booming throughout the cavern.

Several minutes after the trio left, he ripped the duct tape off of the captive's mouth. "And as for you...I still wish you had joined our cause...Instead of trying to fight it by sending that...But I am.." The captive spit, his spit landing right on Whitebeard's Shoe, "Nice try, but I'll defy you until the day I die, whenever you decide that will be!" The man replied, calm voice counteracting Whitebeard's booming one.

"You dare defy me?" "I've done more than that, haven't I?" BLAM! Suddenly the man in the chair flew towards a wall, landing, and cracking the wall. "That hurt you know." "Shut your mouth, or I'll take it off. And as for your brother...Well, he's dead too." "I heard you give the command some time ago."

"Indeed," He sighed. "It would please me if you had changed your mind. One piece turned me into a god, and you know that. So have you changed your mind yet? Or will I have to break your arm again...ACE!"

**DUN DUN DUUUUUUN! YEAH, THATS ACE'S FATE FOR NOW...SORRY, BUT YOU'LL SEE MORE OF HIM SOON! NEXT CHAPTER! LUFFY vs THE SPIRIT TRIO! AND THE STORY BEHIND HIS SWORD FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T GUESSED YET! (also, if you haven't noticed, I changed my name to Fenix Cole.)ALSO, THE SPIRIT ARC BEGINS NEXT CHAPTER, AND THE HUNT FOR SANJI IS ON! FINALLY LUFFY MEETS HIS MATCH IN COMBAT!**

**Also special thanks to Nimak, and Apolonia86 for becoming my new beta readers. Thanks to Nimak especially who gave me the idea for Franky's Fate.**


	7. The Spirit Ark I

**LOST TIME**

The Soul Arc Part I

Wow...Honestly, I never thought I'd make it to chapter 7, and right now, my spirits are kinda sunk because I'm not getting many reviews...so please, reviews would be much appreciated, especially since I'm on the borderline of a slump, (Cookies to those that review!) and my inspiration is somewhat near the bottom, even though I've got this whole ark planned out, so please review! And now for lost time!

Chopper quickly ran up to the deck, bellowing, calling for Luffy, until he found him sitting in the crow's nest. Bearing the bloody injection needle, he crawled up, and plopped down next to Luffy. "Luffy! I just found this in the ship's hold..." He held up the bloody needle, breathless, and Luffy's eyes seemed to widen. He jumped down from the crow's nest, and shot towards the hold, Chopper in tow.

"That Needle's a sign. sometimes it comes out of the box over there..." Luffy said as he suddenly realized something.

Luffy threw the box open, his sign clattering a few feet away, and pulled out an old dusty book. He flipped it open, then frowned, a look of anger on his face. "Chopper." He spoke slowly now. "Did you touch this box?" "No, I read the sign, you know, the one that said do not open, so I left it alone!" Luffy grimaced, Then began flipping through the book.

"Too late. Our position has been given away." He put the book back into the case, then locked it shut. "I knew I should have locked it last time." "What are you talking about?" Chopper asked, curious on what had Luffy so uptight.

"Whitebeard's sending his men after us, and that was a tracking book, discovered and invented by his crew. The blueprints of it were found by his crew, and it has a lot of information about him and his crew in it, as such it is tempting to open, but if it is, the main one, which Whitebeard always has on him, will tell him and his crew where this one is. It has a whole page which has numerous runes dedicated to this purpose.

Unfortunately, it's indestructible as well, and once it has been implemented in one place, it cannot be moved unless activated by Whitebeard and his henchmen.

"S-so, he's sending people after us?" "Probably. But don't worry, last time it was a couple hundred guys with minor devil fruit powers, like flight, and things like that." Chopper shivered. "So he sends devil fruit users after us?" "Yeah, mainly because one piece was the Ijin Ijin Fruit.." Chopper's eyes widened. "The devil devil fruit? What does that do?" Luffy looked down at him, now even more serious.

"It gives one the ability to give and take devil fruit powers. So far though, Whitebeard is only focusing on the give. He can only take to some extent. Because of him, I can't stretch my head." As if to show an example. Luffy pulled on his head, but nothing happened, while stretching his arm up.

"So thats what we're dealing with.." Chopper mumbled, then nodded at Luffy. "Good night captain!" the reindeer said, saluting, then walked off towards the men's quarters. Luffy sat there, then stomped on the book. "Not again." He mumbled.

Morning came, and as such, screams from Chopper woke most everyone up. "EVERYONE! IT'S THE BARATIE! LOOK! THATS IT, RIGHT?!" Chopper yelled, pointing to a giant fish shaped restaurant, floating on the sea. "Yeah." Mumbled a slightly sleep deprived Nami, who wandered out of the navigation room.

Luffy stood up, then stretched his arms and reached towards the restaurant pulling him and the ship right up next to the restaurant, then promptly stopped it by pushing hard against the wall. Kicking down the gangplank, he called to the rest. "All off!" then promptly walked into the restaurant. Eyes wandered over towards the entrance when Luffy walked into the restaurant, slowly moving towards the chef's room. He entered, and ran into a man with a very odd circular lower part . '

"HEY! WATCHA THINK YOU'RE DOIN IN HERE SQUIRT!?" The man looked over, eyes suddenly widening. "Luffy? Izzat you kid?" Luffy looked over at the man who wore an eye patch, seemingly unfamiliar to him. "Doncha remember me kid? I'm Patty!"

"So Sanji left off after finding out I was alive?" "Yeah, he even brought our new ship with him. Looks a lot like the one he took you to Arlong park in. Green and white, striped." Luffy nodded. "And where did he say he was going?" "He said he was heading towards the sea of fire towards the southeast. He thought he'd find you there, as that's where it was rumored you were headed on the part of the navy." Luffy laughed. "That's some crappy Intel on the navy's part."

"Yeah, mainly because the sea of fire is the one place where no man would ever go." Another chef wearing sunglasses walked over. "Carne! Come to join us?" "No, actually I just wanted to point that out. Now I've gotta get back to doin' your job." He pointed at Patty. "You owe me." then walked back. "The sea of fire?" Luffy asked, confused.

"It's a desert that's seemingly endless. However legend tells that an ancient city which is possibly the most technologically advanced in the world lies right in the middle. But nobody's ever found anything. Supposedly the weapons there are the strongest in the world. Like the trees of the devil fruit supposedly grow there." Patty replied.

"Most everyone who comes here is talkin' about it. I guess the Navy put 1 and 4 together and got 2. They think you're after the weapons, and you're trying to take over the world. Or they're just trying to..." Patty stopped mid sentence. "Oh my god..." He whispered. Then stood up.

"Luffy, the navy is trying to exterminate all of your old crew members...and perhaps even more...They're trying to draw pirates and your old crew there, and then kill them."

Luffy's eyes shot open, sudden realization flowing in. "Thanks Patty, so Sanji went there?" "Un." Patty replied. "Then we've gotta go save him." Quickly Luffy shot back towards the ship, warning everyone of the danger their former comrades now faced. Soon the sails were up, and the ship was shooting off towards the south east, in search of whoever was there, and ready to meet any dangers that came their way.

The desert appeared on the horizon, a seemingly endless amount of orange stretching for perhaps miles, no visible sign of it being an island, and sand stretching for miles along the orange coastline. No ports adorned the end, and no boats were visibly docked there. As such, the thousand sunny sailed up to the shore, and then spotted a small green and white ship. "Sanji's here." Luffy said, hopping out of the boat, along with the rest of the crew, not noticing a small body shaped ship perhaps a number of meters away, with a smiling man named Motoko staring intently at them, when his comrades came out. To them, there was no green and white boat, only the thousand sunny, and they watched the four forms disappear along the shoreline. Suddenly Motoko straightened up, and shook the smile off of his face.

"Damn, this illusion trick really takes it out of you. So what'll it be Seji? You're the master of assassination among pirates!"

"I've got just the thing." The one named Seji hopped out of the ship, now wearing an all orange shirt, cloak, and mask, with the ying yang symbol adorning it. He smiled behind his mask.

"You guys go on ahead." And as the body shaped ship sailed off into the horizon, he smiled, eyes now blood red, and he repeated, "I've got just the thing."

Brook shuddered as they marched through the desert. "Captain...It would appear there is a devil fruit user here..." Luffy looked at him. "You can sense that?" "No...Not normally at least, but this devil fruit user was trying to control my heart, to change my emotions, manipulate me. They're obviously a new kind of user." Luffy cursed.

"Whitebeard's henchmen are here, but what kept you from being affected, Brook?" "Easy. I am simply a spirit. Nothing more, perhaps a shell as well, but only a spirit. This user can only take control of one's heart. And I do not have one."

Luffy unsheathed his sword, ready for action. Nami grabbed her perfect clima-tact, ready for action as well. Brook pulled out his cane sword, and Chopper turned into heavy point. Now moving slower, and slightly more on alert, the crew of four moved forward at a slow pace, watching the desert sands.

Blood red eyes glared from Brook, angrily to Chopper, who seemed to stop, then continue moving, and the red eyed man smiled. "One of four down."

Chopper look over at Luffy. "This is pointless. We'll never find Sanji in this huge desert. What ever drove you to do something this retarded Luffy? I thought this year had changed you. HONESTLY! Thanks to you, we're in a god forsaken desert, looking for some psycho pervert chef, who now has close to ten billion beri, and is probably a PLAYBOY psycho pervert who relies on prostitutes to live!" Chopper stared angrily at Luffy. "Why not just turn around now before this retard makes another mistake!" Luffy stared at Chopper, confused. "Why are you so angry Chopper?"

The man was close to laughing, but instead, he focused his eyes on Nami, eyes once again changing from cloud grey into blood red.

Nami blinked, then stopped, staring at Chopper. "He's right you know! HONESTLY! Luffy you're possibly the stupidest person I know! Why the hell are we looking for that psycho! Right Chopper?!" Chopper nodded back, then promptly turned with Nami and started towards the ship. "WAIT!" Luffy yelled after them.

"We've gotta find him! He's Nakama!" Nami and Chopper shuddered at the word Nakama. "Nakama? Luffy, to you the only Nakama you ever had was that old bastard Shanks. And look what you did! You went and killed him! Your one true Nakama! The only other Nakama you have is the meat that you eat all the time!" Chopper spat at him.

"We're going." Nami turned. "Nakama, Nakama, Nakama! Is that all you have on your mind? Just because people were once your 'Nakama' (And I use that term loosely.) you feel you have the right to drag them back onto some rotting piece of floating dog shit?! I Don't think so!"

Brook suddenly fell to the ground, unable to move. "Luffy...somethings attacking my spirit, trying to reach my...AAAARGH!" "L-look, you guys are all under some spell! S-some devil fruit user is manipulating you!" "Not quite. There's nothing wrong with us stating our opinions, and does there SEEM to be anything wrong with us? We'll meet you back at the ship when you're done being an idiot."

Seji Chuckled, watching the arguing unfold, after incapacitating Brook by temporarily giving him a heart preventing his spirit from contacting his body, and giving it commands. Now he turned his gaze on Luffy, and blinked twice. Something shut him out. "Spirit energy." He hissed. "Hate that. Guess I'll have to torture him some more!" Seji laughed and turned his gaze towards Nami again.

"Once again, Nami blinked, then, "You know, to be quite honest, I really can't take any of this bullshit. Fighting so YOU can have your revenge! What are we fighting for? One piece? Too little, too late! And another thing Luffy, you know that we're risking our lives just so you can accomplish your childhood dream and avenge your idol. We didn't even KNOW the guy! WHY drag us into it? Go to hell Luffy. Go to hell. I'll take Sanji's boat, and get the hell out of here. He's probably dead anyway!" She sneered. "And he probably wouldn't care anyway."

Luffy dropped to his knees, unable to move. Apparently a bit of Seji's spell had, in fact gotten through his spirit force barrier, and now images of him killing Shanks, basic guesses on Seji's part, but to Luffy, in fact, they seemed real. Eyes shut, Luffy pounded the ground, as Nami, and Chopper walked away, and Brook's body, filled with sand sat in the orange sand of the seeming horizon.

Seji laughed, not loud, but more of a chuckle, as he prepared for his next act, throwing a dagger towards the group. Using his manipulation, Nami picked up the dagger, and was about to stab Luffy, when Seji turned around, more for amusement, than to check his flank, when he spotted a green and white striped ship on the shore. "Thats right Shit puppeteer, the calvary's here." Seji looked up into the eyes of Sanji. "Never, and I mean NEVER mess with a lady's feelings." Seji trembled, and began to stare at Sanji, when a foot sent him flying through the air, concentration now broken, causing minor ties to be broken, and the images stopped for Luffy, who watched as the man landed next to him.

"Bad place to land puppeteer." Seji looked up. "Aaaaagh Fuck." A fist drove him straight down into the sand, then pulled him up after a few seconds. Sand bursting from his mouth, scratches all over him, the once mighty ruler of feeling, Seji locked eyes with Luffy, His eyes bursting with fear, while confidence adorned Luffy's stare.

"So it was YOU?! You're the one who was manipulating their feelings?"

"Y-Yes...P-please don't kill me...I was only following W-whitebeard's orders!"

"Put them back to normal. DO IT NOW!"

"I-I c-can't! O-only Motoko can! H-he's in c-charge of t-this operation! N-not me! I'm just an underling!" Luffy punched him "WHERE IS HE?!" "In a body shaped ship...F-floating towards the northwest Marine b-base!"

"Thank you. Now that wasn't so hard, was it? Now you die, useless."

"NOOOOO! Please! I can put the reindeer back! I-I Pr-Pr-Promise!" He snapped his fingers, and Chopper returned to normal, collapsing on the ground from being controlled for such a long period of time. "A-and there is another way to put the girl back. A sh-shock, y-you know, like something very sad, or so-something sudden! L-like i-if you have the hiccups! And I can tell you more! Just please! Let me live!" Luffy raised his fist, and tore off the man's mask. "You're coming with us. Just don't try anything. AND FIX BROOK!" Brook suddenly shot up after the man snapped his fingers, sighing from relief.

"So do we kick this Motoko guy's ass or what? It's your choice Luffy!" Sanji stepped forward. "Don't I have a say? I mean, I just saved your lives." "So you're re-joining the crew Sanji?" "I dunno...you guys are going after one piece _STILL_?!" Sanji took a long drag of his cigarette, then looked at the sky as Luffy spoke. "No, this time, we're going after Whitebeard as he found it. And also, he's using it to take over the world." "So we're the Pirate Harbingers of Justice now?" Sanji said, still in a cool and collected voice. Luffy smiled. "Personally, I kinda like the world as is. And we were peace main pirates, only stepping in when it concerns us. Really, this affects everyone. And Whitebeard's bounty is somewhere in the trillions now."

Taking another long drag of his cigarette, Sanji looked down at Luffy. "Yeah, sure, I guess I'm in, if Nami-san is, but looking at her right now just goes to show you that these bastards won't let that happen." He finally smiled, and reached out towards Brook and Chopper, helping them up. "all things considered, I'm glad that I came here!" Luffy sweatdropped.

"So you guys still have the thousand sunny. And you." He pointed to Luffy. "Luffy, you seem a lot smarter than last time. You been teaching or what?" "I've been learning-" Chopper interrupted. "He's got a stack of books he's read this high!" To make a point, he reached up as far as he could as heavy point. Sanji closed his eyes, and took another drag of his cigarette. "Damn, Luffy, you've got some explaining to do. But for now, lets get this Motoko bastard." Sanji muttered, then grabbed Seji.

"You! What's your name, and where will Motoko be in the northwest?!" "My name is Seji, and I told you. He's going to the marine base there called 'Seiha Shima.' Probably to report your death. He'll be expecting me." "Then we'll bring you to him. Congratulations, you just became bait." "W-wait! There's another one of us, we're called the soul trio. Motoko actually is under this one. His name is...Kokoro." Luffy blinked.

"I've heard of him. What's his power?" "I-it's too terrible to explain...he, he can control one's soul! He can even pluck it out and use it for his own good. But he still is taking orders from Motoko, sort of testing him to see how he accomplishes this mission. He's Whitebeard's Jail guard, his power matching that of Whitebeard's First mate!" "Well then, we'd better get going!"

Seji sat next to Nami, bound and gagged in the hold, Nami pacing around, still in a trance. Much to Sanji's discomfort, the group had decided to put her down there, just for her own, and everyone else's safety. And also to piss Seji off. While Nami ranted about her various hatred of the group above her, consulting with herself, Seji was beginning to regret what he'd done. "I'm quitting the minute this is over." He thought in his mind.

After a long explanation, Sanji was beginning to understand what had happened all those years he was gone. "And I wondered what happened to Robin-chwan and Nami-san! I even had this ready for one of them! Had it made about a month ago just in case of this scenario! Never thought you were dead Luffy! You just don't die that easily!" Sanji reached into his pocket and pulled out a necklace. Luffy smiled. "Well it looks like we'd better get on our way, we should be at the fortress in a few days! Then we can cure Nami and head to water 7 on the grand line!

**Translations**

**I've begun using some japanese text, so here are the translations for it!**

**Ijin/Devil**

**Seji/Heart**

**Shima/Island**

**Seiha/Domination**

**Un/Yeah**

**Kokoro/Mind, Heart, Soul**

**I just found these on the internet, and decided, what the hell. So there you go!**

**Next chapter will be up soon! The explanation of Luffy's sword will come then too. **

**Once again, thanks to Nimak for basically breaking my slump and inspiring me to do this **

**whole chapter! Thanks Nimak! He gave me the whole idea for this chapter, so a lot of credit**

**goes to him! **


	8. The Spirit Ark II

**Lost Time**

The Soul Arc II

Well, here we are again! Honestly, I never thought I'd make it to chapter 8. but the only thing I have to say is that I need reviews, and the small fact that I'm throwing in a LITTLE BIT of sci-fi. I've been watching too much of it on tv...anyway. PLEEEEEEEEASE! REVIEWS!! I'll write your review at the bottom if you do! So now, without any further begging on my part for reviews, here is chapter 8 of lost time.

Seji sat in the below decks, waiting for when their destination would be reached, wishing to cover his ears as Nami ranted. Thoughts flew threw his mind. Whitebeard, why he was serving him, how he had gotten his powers, his 'friends' or rather 'work buddies.' "No." He thought to himself. "They hate me. All of them. They left me to fend for myself against the second strongest pirate in the grand line!" His mind whizzing, Seji tried to figure out why the straw hats had taken him prisoner, and not killed him on the spot.

"All things considered...perhaps this...this 'Luffy' would be better at being pirate king than Whitebeard, now insane with his abilities, and his power. Perhaps he is not all powerful. What then?" Mutinous ideas flowed through his head, of killing Whitebeard, who he now remembered had killed his brother, the unwilling one. The only one who had called Whitebeard crazy. Next to Ace...and look how he ended up.

XXXXXX

Luffy stared off into the distance, dusk rapidly approaching, while he kept the ship going in the right direction.

"Oi. Captain." Sanji walked up the stairs into the navigation room. "Why are you steering?" Sanji asked, still unaware of Luffy's Intellectual increase. "Because Nami is down stairs being insane." Luffy replied, unblinking, still staring ahead. "True, but you need sleep too, don't you?" "Grand total, I've gotten about 12 hours in the past 3 days of sleep."

Sanji whistled. "Wow...sucks to be you. What do you do anyway, and why are you recruiting us in such an odd order? And since when did you become a swordsman?"

"I read. Mostly. If Nami is steering at least...sometimes I practice swordplay. And I'm 'recruiting' you in this order as this is the most convenient order for you guys. I was close to Nami's village when I first found the thousand sunny, then I went to Usopp's. Got chopper there. Then stopped at another town to find you, and instead I found Brook. And this sword..."Luffy suddenly broke off.

"Is that land over there? And aren't we WAY too early?" "If you're seeing things, then I am too." Sanji pointed to the island where Luffy's finger pointed. "That one?" "Yeah." Sanji glanced down at the map Luffy had in front of him, then shook his head. "No island on the map." Luffy blinked, then pointed towards a small boat docked on the shore. "Apparently...It's inhabited."

The ship was shaped like that of one's body, now with a very large sword through where the heart would be.

"Motoko." "You think that's him?" "Very much so, yes. Go get Chopper and Brook."

Seji listened as shoes clattered above him, and tried to open the door from below. "Damn, they must've found him." Luffy stepped off of the ship, and walked into the boat, then out, shaking his head. "Not here. There's nobody in here. As a matter of fact, there's nothing in here.

"What do you mean by that?"

"No provisions, no signs of life, literally, nothing, other than wooden floor, walls and a ceiling!"

"Thats how I live. I really don't need anything. And I'm surprised you beat Seji. But then again, he was just a distraction to divert you from the real threat..."

A man stepped out of the overgrowth, garbed in green, kind of a green colored version of what Seji was wearing. Yet underneath, he wore silver armor, and attached to his waist were five blades, all blue, painted sea stone.

"I specialize in the 'dispatching' of devil fruit users. I could easily crush your mind now, but that would be too easy. And, you've got that annoying spirit energy...But orders are orders."

He drew one of the five blades, and Luffy followed suit, motioning for the others to step back. "Well, it looks like this will be a sword fight?" "It would seem that way...But...-" Motoko quickly drew, and tossed up his other four swords, these floating in the air. He retrieved one, then stood in combat position with the two pointing at Luffy. "Kokoro is at the marine base now, waiting for you...I'm here to see if you're really worthy of fighting him. Each one of these swords has a small animal brain inside of it, allowing me to manipulate them, even in the air."

Looking closely, Luffy noticed several red, almost vein like structures on each of the blue blades, the red flashing brightly on the ones in the air, the almost blood like substance coated each blade, like veins in one's arm. Luffy frowned. "You killed Five animals for this? Damn, you're an asshole. Now lets get STARTED!"

Rushing forward, Luffy presented his blade at Motoko, who quickly crossed his blades as if to make a shield of some kind, yet suddenly, Luffy was gone. A flash behind him, and suddenly, there was Luffy, blade stuck fast into a group of three swords, blocking his weapon from injuring Motoko. "Interesting power. Lets see how you defend yourself from this."

Stretching his arm back for seemingly the first time, Luffy fired a bullet into the midst of the swords, snapping several veins on one sword, causing it to drop to the ground, where as Luffy promptly stomped on the pommel, crushing the animal brain, freeing it from Motoko's control.

A smile still adorned the disciple of Whitebeard's face. "Almost a challenge, but not quite." Loosing his swords, Motoko rushed at Luffy, now fully stuck into the two other swords, a swing cutting two hairs off as he ducked Motoko's first swing, then jumped at the second, sending his sandaled foot into Motoko's face. A stream of curses ringing out, Motoko grabbed his nose, blood now pouring freely from his once green mask, now adding in a red splotch to the center,

"Can't take a punch?" Luffy smiled, almost manically, as the blood dripped to the ground. Swinging blindly now, Luffy easily dodged Motoko's third and fourth blows, who now was on his knees, throwing his arms everywhere. Luffy stepped back, and started to walk away.

"And that, my friend is a little jujitsu." Luffy turned, just as one of the two floating swords shot through his stomach, the second, lodging itself in his arm. Luffy took several steps back, then blinked, blood now freely staining his red vest. "Well, I always wanted this vest to be a bit darker."

XXXXXX

Staring down at the once tranquil battlefield, the crew stared on in horror as Motoko began hacking away at Luffy, keeping him in place with the swords. Most turned, Sanji cringing once in a while, and most trying to go help him, only to be stopped by Sanji's foot, and an intense glare, followed by a; "You wanna get KILLED?" From varying parties. "What's keeping him going?" Chopper wondered aloud.

XXXXXX

"Why-won't-you-just-die-ALLREADY?!" Motoko yelled aloud, continuously stabbing his swords through Luffy's stomach. Coughing up blood, Luffy glared at him. "I've got too much to live for." Suddenly, Motoko was flying through the air, and crashed into the tree, his two swords scattering next to him, and the two swords stuck in Luffy stabbing the tree above him. Luffy slowly walked over.

"Now turn Nami back to normal before I have to hurt you...again...and you don't want to know what happened to the last guy this happened to."

"I-I c-can't." Motoko responded, with some trouble, a smile coating his face. "You're gonna need to kill Kokoro in order to free her. He's got my...my AAAAGH..." Motoko coughed up some more blood, now white pus started to stream from his wounds, and then more blood. "My soul. H-h-HE can use my powers, I can only c-c-c-COntrol certain o-o-Ones..." Luffy stared.

"Again. Great, off to the marine base." He turned. "Wait." Motoko held up a bloody hand. Smile broadening. "Our match I-i-Isn't over." Once again, a sword flew at Luffy, who sidestepped, then grasped the pommel, once again crushing the brain inside, then promptly throwing it through Motoko's head. Blood and green slime flew out for a bit, then ceased, nothing more coming out of the container that was Motoko's head.

The once tranquil coastline, now covered with blood, showed signs of a war, not a simple fight between too men. And Motoko's corpse, sitting on the shore, stabbed through the tree was what most of the straw hat crew had going through their minds now.

Looking almost like he used to, the carefree teenager, now the mature captain, Luffy was sleeping soundly inside the medical room, after being treated by chopper with several drugs to help him heal better, but causing him to fall asleep.

"So...We're supposed to go off to the marine base?" "Yeah, thats right, but I'm still confused by the name...Mind explaining Brook? You've been around a while, and neither Chopper, or I have any idea."

Brook looked up after hearing his name mentioned. "Sehia Shima...He looked down at a book he held in his hands. Sehia Shima is the name of the largest marine prison in existence. For example, those who have done completely intolerable crimes, such as trying at world domination, or trying to overthrow the government are brought here if not executed. If Luffy was captured, he'd go here, same as his father. It was to be that gold roger would go here, but instead, he was deemed to be executed by the world government."

Sanji sweatdropped. "You just read that out of the book didn't you?" Brook nodded, laughing as he did so. "So it's gotta be pretty hard to get out of that place huh? Do you think they know about Whitebeard? And what about that pirate guy?" "That was probably the closest place to turning in the bounty. And this newspaper says that Whitebeard signed a truce with the world government."

"Damn...so now we've got the marines against us too-..." Sanji smiled. "Heh, never mind, that's not new."

Suddenly, Brook dropped the newspaper he was reading, then pointed to the page it had opened to. "Have you ever heard of the rangers?" "Rangers? Nope, what are they, another part of the world government?" "No." Brook furiously shook his head, then held up a picture of something. "As a matter of fact, they're the exact opposite. The only nation to ever refuse governing by the world government was a nation that was supposedly in the Sea of Fire...The desert we left a day or two ago. The same technologically advanced nation, and supposedly the strongest military nation in the world." once again, he motioned to the picture.

Contained in the picture was a black and white drawing of a thing, wearing a metal helmet with four blue holes in it, and a metal plate covering where the chest would be. It held a long gun, similar to a marine rifle, yet the barrel was skinnier, and the gun itself formed sort of a square with a rectangle attached to it. The paper called this thing, bearing a weapon, shown only in a drawing, a Ranger. Apparently they were not only fighting the marines now, but Whitebeard as well. The paper said that this threat would soon be dealt with, and that forces were now moving to secure all islands near these people.

Sanji stared, and Chopper's eyes sparkled. Brook, still pointing to the paper moved his finger, and pointed towards the horizon where a large number of marine ships surrounded an island. "Sehia Shima." Brook said, then pointing to the three battleships surrounding the island. "And company."

XXXXXX

"So Jericho, what're you doing later? Cuz I found a club on this god forsaken island!" "Actually, I've been ordered to get on one of the three ships leaving for the sea of fire in order to attack those goddamn rangers. We're being accompanied by Whitebeard himself!" Said the marine to his companion. "Lucky bastard. So what d'ya think about these Rangers?" The other laughed.

"Utter bullshit. Never been anything the marines couldn't handle. And something that far ahead of us technologically? Impossible!" "But it was rumored that this one guy killed an entire battalion! They've got proof too! There were odd bullets implanted in the bodies of the marines, and there were weird bullet casings around the battlefield as well!"

"Pfft! No such thing. Probably some pirate with a new weapon. We'll find him eventually-" Suddenly he began to shake. "N-never m-mind...T-there...THEY'RE HERE!!" He screamed running into the nearby building, as his companion was shot through the head. Two men walked out of the water, slowly advancing towards the building. "Target down. Commencing operation Execution II."

XXXXXX

Explosions shot through two battleships, and the third shot from the island, going as fast as it could. Sanji looked, then spoke, voice softer than before. "Looks like someone else beat us here..." The Thousand Sunny docked behind the island, blue waters mixing with red, now a red circle surrounding the base. Explosions rocketed from the island, howls of pain sounding, until silence. Then two more screams, these slightly more muffled, and accompanied by crackling, than a chattering laugh.

Sitting up, Luffy walked out onto the dock, then crouched, looking over towards the towers that once held many pirates, soon to be executed, who were now running around, and causing a ruckus. And in the center, a man wearing a black cloak with a ghost on it stood, chuckling, as the pirates ran over numerous marine corpses, and two armored bodies. In the middle, near the man in the black suit. "Now get out of here, fools, RUN! HAHAHAHA!" "All things considered," Luffy thought, "That's gonna have to be Kokoro." Suddenly, he was pulled up, and spun around, his crew there, hushing him.

"Have you ever heard of the rangers?" Luffy shook his head, surprised at the sudden awakening. "They're the two dead guys over there. And it looks like we're gonna have to face some of them, because I saw two more of them pop up out of the water back there." Brook pointed to the back. "And two alone took out this base...but that guy, Kokoro...He killed both of them, no sweat." Luffy cracked his knuckles, then stood up. "Well then, looks like we've finally found our enemy! Lets go kick his ass!"

**Thats all for this chapter, next chapter Luffy, Sanji, Chopper, and Brook fight Kokoro in a battle for their souls! Who exactly are the rangers, and what is their story? And best of all, Luffy vs Kokoro, and the crew vs the rangers!**


	9. The Spirit Ark III

**Lost Time**

The Soul Arc part III

Well, here I am again, with chapter 9 of my proudest work next to pipeline, which I plan to put up after this. VERY SORRY ABOUT THIS BEING NEARLY A YEAR LATE. School and being hit by a truck sorta stopped me from updating sooner. Afterwards I became increasingly lazy, and simply read until I finally devised a way for me to stay on this. (Sorry about the crappy ending to chapter 8. Mainly because I was tired, and wanted to finish this.)

Several more rangers climbed out of the sea, walking towards their downed comrades, blood coming from their helmets. The one wearing a red cross on his shoulder went over and tapped the solder's neck. "He's long gone....And it looks like that guy killed him." He pointed towards Kokoro, who's attention was turned towards another source. "I've got a great shot here." One ranger raised his gun, and pointed it towards Kokoro's head. Another pushed his rifle down. "Someone's beating us to it. It's best if we finish the captains at the base." "Yes sir!" Another saluted, then the group clamored towards one of the towers.

------

"So you've found me. This means you've probably killed my pitiful underlings, Seji and Motoko, already. I should warn you, I'm stronger than them." "I'll bet you are." Luffy now grinned at the man standing in front of him, who bore several scars on his face. A confused expression now adorned Kokoro's face, which slowly turned into a smile. "Well, lets go then!"

"HOLD IT!" Sanji and the rest of the crew walked off of the thousand sunny, prepared for combat. "We intend to fight too, you know!" "I'm sure you do. But right now, I'd take care of those rangers, they're going to kill the rest of the prisoners, including one of your friends....I'm not good with names....Oh! But I dressed them up in a marine suit, and they're in the captains quarters!" He sneered. "Looks pretty funny too. And the rangers always follow orders. Kill everyone in the captains quarters.....Kind of like zombies."

"And why should we believe you?" "Better to risk it than not! But I did get this from them!" He dropped an empty bottle of cola on the ground. "Damn bastard..." Chopper ran off, followed by Brook, then Sanji, slowly in pursuit. He turned his back. "Take care of this son of a bitch, captain." Then ran after Chopper and Brook. Luffy looked back at Kokoro. "I could offer to you to free Nami, but I know that you'd refuse. So why wait? Lets start." He ran at Kokoro, swinging his sword at him.

"Heh." Luffy swung, and hit air, Kokoro materializing behind him. Extending a hand, he tapped Luffy's shoulder, then held his hand out towards the remaining crew members, a white light shining from all of them, and dropping into his hand, the crew dropping like puppets to the ground. Luffy stared. "What the hell did you do to them?" Kokoro smiled.

"Let's see how you taste!" Suddenly, a white light flew from Luffy, slowly moving into Kokoro. A look of pain covered Luffy's face as he toppled over, grabbing his heart. "Trying to fight your way out huh? Not happening." White light flew everywhere, and suddenly, Kokoro was gone.

Sanji awoke in a large wooden room, then looked around. There were no doors, and the walls were white, with a blue outline painted on. There were no windows, and the room seemed to go up forever. At least, the ceiling wasn't exactly visible. "What the hell? Wasn't I at the marine base a second ago..?" Sanji looked around once more. "Well, if there's no door, then I'll make one!" Kicking a hole in the wall, Sanji walked through, only to see another room, similar, but with a door labeled "kitchen"

"Hello?" Walking through the door, Sanji ended up in a restaurant, only to be handed a plate of food by an unknown person, and pushed towards a table. Looking about for the person who had handed him the food, and the customer, Sanji blinked, then took a few steps forward. He placed the food down on the table, then moved towards another door.

"This is one weird marine base." Suddenly, termites climbed out of the wood, and it began to decay. Mold grew from the wood as well, mostly in darker corners, then a sign smashed down from the ceiling. Sanji read the sign, then stepped back. "W-what the hell? Who the fuck is pulling the strings here?!" Suddenly, the wood from below him decayed fully, then crumbled, and Sanji began to fall to the bottom of a pit. Behind him, the large blue fish shaped sign, edges yellowed with the sudden infestation read; 'Baratie', landed next to him, followed by screams and blood dripping in from the ceiling.

-------

Chopper sat up, in the middle of a circle of snow, shaking some out of his hat, and off of his antlers, then stood up, surveying his environment. About forty or fifty feet off of the ground, a ladder led up to a cave, where noises could be heard, soldiers surrounding the ladder, if they could even be called that. They wore Eskimo suits, and carried rifles and swords. Inside, one walked out carrying an old man with his hair straightened into a long point, his sideburns the same as his hair. The soldier pointed his gun at the man's head, then pushed him to the ground, surrounding him with weapons. The man sat up, and started babbling nonsense, stuff about the apocalypse, and more stuff that couldn't be understood from Chopper's distance.

Slowly walking forward, Chopper recognized the man. "Dr. Hiluluk?" The men in Eskimo suits turned, slowly bringing their rifles up. "Abominable snowman! Crap! Get away from us monster!" Just then, Chopper noticed something. All of these people were the size of ants. Unannounced to him, his arm started to move, and crushed one of the men. Unable to control his body, Chopper continued crushing the man, until nothing was left but red snow. His comrade turned, and tried to run, only to be crushed as well. "What am I doing?" Thought chopper. Finally, his arm smashed down on Hiluluk and against numerous yells and screams from Chopper, he too was crushed to death. Standing in the middle of the snow, Chopper tried to cry. Tried to move his arms, legs, anything just to prove who was in control. To no avail he struggled as he rampaged through one of the towns of the drum kingdom.

-------

Spinning around, Brook searched his location. He was in the midst of the rumbar pirates, all of whom were seemingly frozen in place. Looking down, he saw that he was whole again, and concluded that indeed, this was some strange dream, and he would wake up soon. A memory of being handed the dial containing the rumbar pirate's final song played in his head, and suddenly, he was next to laboon again, skeleton, afro intact, and with no dial. The whale thrashed frantically, and sent brook flying through the lighthouse until he re-gained his footing, and realized what had happened and where he was. Laboon shook with fury, and Crocus stepped up to him, from seemingly nowhere. "So now you choose to return. If it weren't for the straw hats, then you would have been the death of this whale. And I think it's time that he got back at you. Crocus lifted Brook off of his feet, and chucked him into the ocean.

The greeting of Laboon, teeming with fury awaited Brook underwater. Unable to move, he stood helpless as Laboon smashed him into the rocks of the red line over and over again. Finally, brook realized something. "This is a dream. No, more like a nightmare. I've met Laboon, seen crocus, and re-joined the straw hats....Then what...What is going on?"

-------

Shaking his head, Luffy scanned his location, reaching slowly for the sword at his side. There was nothing but an empty sheath. "Damn, what the hell did that son of a bitch do?" he mumbled, as he grabbed his head. Suddenly a bound Zoro appeared before Luffy, as well as a copy of himself. "If you want to get your swords back, you'll have to join my crew!" The image flashed away as Luffy had a few seconds to determine it's meaning. Another image appeared in front of him, when Zoro had taken Kuma's attack for Luffy. "But I never even saw that..." He mumbled as Zoro's blood spilled across the black rocks.

After that vanished, an image of Usopp getting flung to the rocks from Luffy's fist. Another came, of Sanji getting beaten down by Gin, and getting slammed down by Oz. More and more came, the memories that are locked away for a reason, showing your friend's pain while you could've helped, but didn't. Eventually, Luffy curled up into a ball, trying to block out the memories that had been locked away for so long. It ended with Nami being dragged away by Kuma's teleportation ability, calling out for Luffy to help her.

Grabbing his head, Luffy writhed on the floor as in his mind it seemed for someone to whisper the words: "I told you to stay away and not resist."A scream of pain, agony, and torment erupted from Luffy's throat as he writhed on the floor of a pitch black room.

-------

Sitting up, Brook regained his posture, and drew his cane-sword, as he stood up among the rest of his fallen Nakama. Shaking each one of them, he noticed Kokoro walking away from them, completely oblivious of his presence. Brook assumed a fencing posture, and ran forward, performing a fleche, and stabbing straight through Kokoro, who turned around, cutting a c shape in his body. "Looks like somebody didn't want to stay in dream land."

Brook stared as the man glared at him, his eyes turning red. Kokoro raised his hand and Brook flew across the field. "HaHAHAHA!" He laughed manically. "Magnificent. Your Nakama truly are tasty and powerful." He removed Brook's weapon, and it clattered to the ground. "Now I'd like it if you stayed unconscious." Brook ignored him, and threw a rock at Luffy, hitting him in the forehead. "Lets see how you like getting killed, you ignorant son of a bitch." Brook announced defiantly as Luffy sat up.

-------

Luffy sat in the dark room, the memories flowing over him repeatedly. Had he really convinced most of his Nakama to join him through blackmail? Could he really not protect them? And how did Kokoro know all of this. Suddenly, the room was filled with light, as a dull pain alerted him, seemingly, something had hit him in the head.

Shaking himself awake, he sat up as the sun blared into his eyes, his sword returned to his waist, and Brook backed up against a wall, Kokoro staring at Luffy, as if a demon had just risen up from hell to come and get him. Luffy shook his head, then looked at a small rock near him, and at Brook. "I'll take the fight from here. You go and wake everyone else up." Brook nodded, and Luffy stood up, cracking his knuckles, and drawing his sword. "I've got a few bruises to make up to you." He said with an evil grin.

Kokoro's look of horror slowly faded. "Whew, I was worried for a second. Good thing I've got their power!" He pointed at Sanji and Chopper, his grin now plastered to his face. "Yeah, well they've been shitting around, while I was training to fight cronies like you!" Luffy swung his sword in a deadly arc, sending Kokoro flying backwards, a trail of red following him. He sat up, then pointed to chopper, who had a smaller version of what Kokoro had received on his chest, the same with Sanji.

"If you hurt me, you hurt them. Unfortunately, the damage is distributed evenly among us, so they get 25% while I take 50% of your blow. But it'll still be enough to hurt you all enough for lord Whitebeard to kill you!"

"Well then I guess I'll still win, no matter how badly they're hurt." He smiled.

"My Nakama don't go down that easily."

"Damn you! Why don't any of my mind tricks work on you!?" Kokoro mumbled under his breath.

Luffy ran forward, and Kokoro flipped backwards, turning into a huge gorilla, and kicking Luffy's sword out of his hands. He smiled, and Luffy sighed. "Now you're in for it. I was using the sword for practice, but I guess since it's over there..." He swung his fists out behind him, and pulled them forward. "Gomu Gomu no....Rapid BAZOOKA!" His fists slammed into Kokoro, and he ran forward, his fists stretching out again at twice the speed, then slamming into the maniac, sending him sprawling across the stone floor. Kokoro sat up, blood gushing from his mouth, in a steady stream. Luffy retrieved his sword, and sent a final stab not through Kokoro, but halfway, so that he was still stabbed through the heart, but so Chopper and Sanji would only get a cut half as long. Kokoro fell over in a pool of his own blood, coughing and wheezing, slowly dying.

"You bastard..."He mumbled.

"Turn Nami back to normal, and I'll ease your suffering." Luffy said, his eyes covered by the shadow of his hair.

"All right you bastard, you win. I'm not one for suffering, so I'll let your Nakama go too." He closed his eyes, and three white lights flew out of him, each entering it's proper owner.

"And I was lying about your friend. Watch the rangers though." He smiled a merciless grin.

"Kill me." Luffy nodded, and shoved his sword through the man's abdomen, and pulled it up, cutting him in half. "Trust me." Luffy said as he walked away. "I could've done you in worse." Shaking the blood off of his sword, Luffy sheathed the weapon, and walked towards his fallen comrades. "Come on guys. It's time to go. The job's done, and we've gotta get out of here." Sanji heaved himself up, and chopper sat up. Luffy grabbed them both, and, trailed by Brook, headed towards the thousand sunny. Kokoro's empty shell lied there, seemingly awaiting something. But along with the rest of the slaughtered marines, there was silence. And peace.

The best laid schemes of mice and men

Go often askew,

And leaves us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!

-Robert Burns, Poet

REAAALY Sorry about how long it took me to update. But I'm back on track now! I'll stick the next chapter up after 5 reviews. I kinda wanna get people reviewing and looking at this so that it'll keep me interested. Otherwise, I'm probably just gonna let this thing happen again. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

~Fenix Cole

**Next chapter-Nami's back to normal! But who is this mysterious man in black, and why is he following the straw hats? Where's Franky? And what will Whitebeard do now that he's learned the fate of his trio? What about Seji? All coming up next in the next chapter of One piece-Lost time!**


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